In this passage, the Sheriff of Nottingham punishes three How is the Sheriff of Nottingham an example of an
brothers for the crime of hunting for food in the king's archetype?
forest.
"So," quoth (the Sheriff of Nottingham), in a great, loud,
He is a villain because acts with cruelty.
angry voice, "ye have been poaching upon the King's
He is a hero because he is victorious.
deer, have you? Now I will make short work of you this
He is a sage because he instructs the young.
day, for I will hang up all three of you as a farmer would
hang up three crows to scare others of the kind from the He is a rebel because he acts according to his own
field. Our fair county of Nottingham hath been too long a moral code.
breeding place for such naughty knaves as ye are. I have
put up with these things for many years, but now I will
stamp them out once for all, and with you I will begin."
- The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood,
Howard Pyle